Nathan Coundon, BA Philosophy

Consciousness and the Brain: are they distinct or the same?

I ask: is there a compelling argument, appealing to the notion of 'possibility', which shows
that consciousness and the brain are distinct things? Descartes imagined a situation
where he had conscious experiences, but his brain did not exist. Since he could conceive
of this situation, Descartes argued that it is possible for consciousness and the brain to
be separated, and that they are distinct. Descartes’ view is known as ‘dualism’. Alone, the
argument just described won’t convince many people to become dualists. Recently there
has been an upsurge of philosophers who share some of Descartes’ intuitions, but
support his dualist conclusion using far more rigorous argumentation. These modern
arguments still appeal to hypothetical ‘possible’ scenarios involving consciousness. This
has created fascinating debates about: how we conceptualise the mind, and how we can
know whether something is possible. I'll introduce these developments in the
philosophical analysis of consciousness, and explain why I think they indicate that
dualism is true. I will also seek to convince people of two major things: - Philosophical
'speculation' can lead to genuine knowledge about consciousness. - If consciousness and
the brain are distinct, this has implications we should all care about (e.g in naturalism vs
religion debates).